A rundown on campaign pricing and user quality

Have you ever wondered why a campaign's payout has changed, or how they can vary from time to time? You're not alone; it's something we hear a lot are questions about!

Today, we wanted to share a bit more about advertiser goals, how payouts are set and background on why they fluctuate. Let's get going!

An outline of advertiser goals

We typically work with advertisers on a cost per install (CPI) basis, though this is only a starting point in how a campaign is evaluated. Advertisers pay-per-install with the hope that the installs delivered turn into quality users.

For example, free to play games monetize in a few typical ways: showing ads to their users, in-app purchases, subscriptions, etc.. An Advertiser might pay a $1.00 CPI for new users with the hope of making more than $1.00 back per user (on average).

In order to reach their goals, advertisers typically provide us with key performance indicators, which are a measure of user quality for a campaign. This might be a retention rate, cost per subscription, or return on ad spend over a specified amount of time.

Failure to meet an advertiser's goals may result in a campaign being removed from the Plug — something that affects all Plug influencers.

Payout rates, and why they change

Payout changes for influencers are determined based on the user quality of the installs they’ve been delivering. These payout changes can either come directly from the advertiser or via our automated pricing system.

Our pricing system will automatically change payout rates up or down to ensure that each influencer is properly awarded for high user quality, while also ensuring that they meet the advertiser’s goals.

Lower rates ≠ lower user quality

You may notice that, sometimes, your rates have been decreased (they also regularly increase). This does not mean the traffic you're driving is necessarily bad.

For most apps, there are specific demographics that tend to lead to higher performing users. Advertiser goals often focus on users that meet those demographics.

For example, a hardcore game may be looking for male users between 18–24 that have an interest in first-person shooters. These users are more likely to turn into higher quality users for that advertiser. Displaying a campaign like this on an account with a younger female audience, might not deliver users that engage well with the game. This is unlikely to deliver a good return on this advertiser’s investment, despite potentially delivering a high volume of new users.

In addition, advertisers regularly make changes to their payout rates across the entire network depending on their current goals and budgets. While this has nothing to do with any particular influencer's performance, this can sometimes mean payout rate drops across the board—as well as increases!

Increasing user quality

By picking the most relevant campaigns for your follower base, you’re going to be delivering installs that have a higher likelihood of becoming engaged, high-quality users.

Using media that aligns well with the function of the app that you are promoting will set expectations correctly for new users.

For example, using a video that clearly explains the function of a new app will help ensure that users that are truly interested in its function will download it. Using media that might be misleading may lead to lower quality users because they have a different expectation of what they are downloading.